In 1973 during one of my regular visits to New York I spent the better part of a cold rainy day photographing the Flatiron building in Manhattan. I shot a number of rolls of 35mm film of this wonderful building from all angles and perspectives. I was interested in creating pairs of images where the final image would emerge from the viewing of two side by side photographs.

I was just finishing grad school and was rebelling against my pictorial and non-silver (Gum Bichromate) work of the previous two years. I was looking for something more conceptual. Conceptual Art was all the rage that year and I wanted to be part of it.

In the end four pairs worked on the level I was looking for, but also seemed to be involved with an unconscious dialog with four earlier photographers. It wasn't that they looked like the images, it was more the spirit of the photographers. One pair I titled Flat Iron For Alfred Stieglitz not because it looked like his photograph of the same structure, but because it had a gritty urban rising mist like his 1892 image The Terminal. I loved the mysterious figure crossing the street, as mysterious as Stieglitz himself.

Along with Stieglitz's work, their were other Flat Iron images for Edward Steichen, Alvin Langdon Coburn and Berenice Abbott. The four pairs were part of my MFA thesis exhibit at the Martin Gallery in Minneapolis that spring. All were printed on Kodalith paper, a paper made for high contrast images for the print industry. Processed with a few tricks (which I have long forgotten), the images came out a cold brown color with some midtones as well as deep shadows. The Minneapolis Institute of Arts bought four pairs out of the show including the Stieglitz homage. Eventually they were posted on their website as well as a couple of other MIA sanctioned sites.

Fast forward 40 years and I find that the image has now been reproduced over 500 times on the Web. It can be found in collections on Flikr, Tumblr, Pinterest and on numerous blogs, art history sites and New York sites. It has taken on a life of its own and I find it all a bit strange. So here is the rest of the story on that image. May it continue to multiple and prosper.

Here is one of the five works from the Winter Show at the Anderson Center in Red Wing. The photograph is from an ongoing series on Wisconsin Highway 35. Voted one of the finest drives in America, the highway is now facing pressure from the fracing sand industry and is probably in its final years as a scenic drive. Although the plant projects a beautiful image at night, it was very noisy when I was there and the local residents complain about dust levels from the fine sand—a known carcinogen according to the companies own material safety data sheets (MSDS).

I am very happy and proud to say that Two Way Lens, a project of German photographer Michael Werner, has chosen me for this months interview in his online series interviews and portfolios of international photographers.

Issue number three of our sometimes magazine photoGRAPHICS is now available. The 28 page magazine is a photo documentary journey down US Highway 1 from the Florida mainland to the end of the road in Key West. Ride along in a convertible with the top down and feel the ocean breezes.

Issue number three of photoGRAPHICS is now available in print, digital download or Flash based online magazine. The print and digital versions of the magazine are $10.00 for both formats or $1.50 for digital only at davidhusom.magcloud.com/. Or an online only Flash based version is also available on issuu.com at issuu.com/davidhusom

Number three of photoGRAPHICS — Hawaiian Shirts and Seashells at the End of the Highway joins issue two, Windows and Windows, on the Gakkenflex plastic lens camera and issue one, Fremont Street Las Vegas AM to AM, a 24 hour visit to downtown Las Vegas.